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    TikTok names exec at Chinese parent ByteDance as new CEO

    By SHOOTUpdated:No Comments707 Views

    By Tali Arbel, AP Technology Writer

    --

    The hit video app TikTok said Friday that an executive at its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, will now also serve as TikTok CEO.

    The new CEO, Shouzi Chew, is the chief financial officer of ByteDance. He is based in Singapore, where TikTok has an office. 

    Vanessa Pappas, based in Los Angeles, has been interim head of TikTok since August 2020. That's when Kevin Mayer, a former top Disney executive who lasted just a few months as TikTok's chief, resigned. Pappas will become TikTok's chief operating officer. 

    Chew became ByteDance CFO in March. He had previously been a top executive for Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi, which went public in 2018.

    TikTok's app features short videos, many with music and dancing, made by its users that has become a favorite of younger people. Research firm eMarketer predicts that TikTok will have 73 million U.S. users this year, and TikTok said last year that it has about 700 million users globally. There is a separate version of TikTok called Douyin for Chinese users.

    TikTok named Mayer as its U.S.-based CEO last year amid scrutiny from President Donald Trump and his administration, which tried to ban the app based on vague national-security concerns and to force its sale to Oracle and Walmart. The Biden administration has put these efforts on hold  as it reviews national security threats posed by Chinese technology companies.

    While it's still unclear what the Biden administration will decide to do with TikTok, the CEO choice suggests the pressure is off ByteDance compared with how the company fared under Trump, said eMarketer analyst Debra Aho Williamson. "It does seem to me that the concern over ByteDance having to divest TikTok may be lessened. TikTok is trying to move forward as a truly global company, and one that hopefully isn't going to be broken up." 

    ByteDance CEO Yiming Zhang said in a statement that Chew will focus on "corporate governance and long-term business initiatives," while Pappas oversees the app's operations. 

    "We will continue building out our strong and deep management team as we set the stage for the next phase of TikTok's success," Chew said.

    Tags:ByteDanceShouzi ChewTikTokVanessa Pappas



    Trump Names Brendan Carr To Lead The FCC

    Monday, November 18, 2024

    President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday named Brendan Carr, the senior Republican on the Federal Communications Commission, as the new chairman of the agency tasked with regulating broadcasting, telecommunications and broadband.

    Carr is a longtime member of the commission and served previously as the FCC's general counsel. He has been unanimously confirmed by the Senate three times and was nominated by both Trump and President Joe Biden to the commission.

    The FCC is an independent agency that is overseen by Congress, but Trump has suggested he wanted to bring it under tighter White House control, in part to use the agency to punish TV networks that cover him in a way he doesn't like.

    Carr has of late embraced Trump's ideas about social media and tech. Carr wrote a section devoted to the FCC in " Project 2025," a sweeping blueprint for gutting the federal workforce and dismantling federal agencies in a second Trump administration produced by the conservative Heritage Foundation.

    Trump has claimed he doesn't know anything about Project 2025, but many of its themes have aligned with his statements.

    Carr said in a statement congratulating Trump on his win that he believed "the FCC will have an important role to play reining in Big Tech, ensuring that broadcasters operate in the public interest, and unleashing economic growth."

    "Commissioner Carr is a warrior for Free Speech, and has fought against the regulatory Lawfare that has stifled Americans' Freedoms, and held back our Economy," Trump said in a statement on Sunday. "He will end the regulatory onslaught that has been crippling America's Job Creators and Innovators, and ensure that the FCC delivers for rural America."

    The five-person commission has a 3-2 Democratic... Read More

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